EU places record order for AI supercomputer with French firm Bull

The European Union has signed a €387.8 million contract with French state-owned technology firm Bull to build a new artificial intelligence-focused supercomputer. The order, announced on Monday, is the largest ever received by the company and marks a significant step in Europe's efforts to expand its computing infrastructure.

The system, named LUMI-AI, will be installed at Finland's supercomputing centre alongside the existing LUMI machine. It is expected to become operational in the second half of 2027. The contract was awarded by EuroHPC, the EU's supercomputing body, and will be jointly funded by the organisation and a consortium of six countries.

The deal comes at a time when demand for AI computing power is outstripping available capacity. Evangelos Floros, head of infrastructure at EuroHPC, said the organisation is currently forced to turn away some applications because it cannot satisfy all requests. He indicated that the situation should ease as new systems come online from late this year.

LUMI-AI is the sixth system ordered under EuroHPC's AI Factories programme, which has established 19 facilities around 12 supercomputers with a budget of €8.2 billion through 2027. The network has become a key platform for European AI development, with systems already being used by companies such as OVHcloud and Italian startup Domyn for training foundation models.

Bull will integrate AI chips from AMD, storage from IBM, and networking technology from Nokia into the new supercomputer. The project is part of a broader European strategy to close the gap with the United States and China in advanced computing capabilities.